Lorenz Meran, a successful gay author suffering acute writers' block, has to leave Berlin and return to eastern Switzerland to provide care for his aged mother, Rosie. But it is not only his mother's battle against being dictated to and losing her dignity that he is struggling with. It's also his own midlife crisis.
Clara is studying for a Ph.D in philosophy in Berlin. In this middle-class male academic environment, she feels pushed to one side. She returns to her childhood village in former East Germany for her mother's birthday, and becomes aware that a distance has grown between her and her family.
50-year-old Erwin Graf is fired without warning: restructuring makes his job as HR manager redundant. He hides his dismissal from his family, as the Grafs are in the process of realizing their dream of owning their own home. Everyone struggles alone with their fears and insecurities. The film shows what happens when the harsh climate of the New Economy spills over into the family.
After losing part of her memory, Maret, 44, sets out to find out who she used to be. She learns about the many different life paths she followed, in none of which anything was ever really achieved. A profoundly unhappy person in a never-ending, headlong rush. A doctor on the island of Lanzarote offers to put this restlessness to an end through brain surgery. A promise of peace and satisfaction. Will Maret proceed with the surgery that would take away part of her being - or not?
Full of joy and good intentions, detective Claudia Studer starts her new job in the homicide division.
Housewife Therese Karlen has been suffering from insomnia for some time. Overwhelmed by her husband and children, she sets off with pensioner Liselott on a journey of self-discovery to the Bernese Oberland.
Ruth is committed to her work, her family, and her faith, but when an ex-lover is released from prison and comes back into her life, her convictions are threatened.
A family drama about a German teenager who leaves home totally unexpectedly to join the ranks of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in its armed struggle. When the boy's father and older brother set off on an adventurous journey to the Syrian border, they manage to find him and bring him back to Germany. However, back home, questions start being asked: did he return of his own free will, has he disassociated himself from the IS ideology, or is he in fact a 'sleeper' agent awaiting orders?
When her husband loses his job, Julia's well-organized life is put to the test. Robert used to work in international finance. Now he stays at home and is in no hurry to look for work. An encounter with a strange homeless man helps Julia overcome her existential crisis.
On a Berlin construction site, the former editor-in-chief Karin and her journalist Rommy happens to witness a fatal accident. From Taras, the accident victim's brother, they learn that this is not an isolated coincidence: The Eastern European workers who toil on the construction site for cheap wages have to do their day's work under the most precarious conditions and beyond give a large part of their wages to shady "intermediaries".
Angela Merkel's decision in autumn 2015 to open the borders for refugees split the country - some praised the moral stance, others criticized the surrender of sovereignty. Yet what would appear to be well-planned activity is in reality a policy of muddling along, chance, trial and error. The Driven Ones is a chronicle of the refugee crisis which shows that the political actors are being driven along, crushed between self-imposed constraints and events that have spun out of control.
Studer is on the trail of a child murderer who has been terrorizing the area for months.
Based on a provocative autobiography, this story — set in a largely Muslim neighborhood in Berlin — follows a teenage gang member who is caught between hiding his Jewish identity and saving his life.
Renowned German organist Anna discovers her Latvian husband's involvement in a corruption scandal, shaking the foundation of their life together. Can she come to terms with this new reality about her husband?